A depth capture unit can use a structured light technique to produce a representation of the distances between an object and a reference point. The depth capture unit includes a projector and a camera. The projector projects a pattern onto the surface of the object, e.g., using infrared-spectrum light. At the same time, the camera captures an image of the object. The depth capture unit can then use a reconstruction technique to produce a depth image based on the projected pattern and the captured image.
A single depth capture unit may be unable to produce an entire depth representation of all portions of an object. For example, assume that the object corresponds to a person. The depth capture unit may be able to only capture one side of that person. To overcome this deficiency, a user may set up two or more depth capture units to capture different respective parts of an object. A synthesis module can then combine the depth images created by the individual depth capture units into a single depth scene.
However, the projected pattern from a first depth capture unit may overlap with the projected pattern from a second depth capture unit. These overlapping patterns may make it difficult for each depth processing unit to correctly interpret its captured image. More specifically, when performing reconstruction, a depth capture unit operates by examining its captured image for the presence of a single projected pattern; when it receives a combination of patterns that departs from this single-pattern expectation, it may fail to successfully interpret the captured image. This, in turn, may result in “holes” in the final depth scene, in which meaningful depth information is omitted. That is, the holes represent instances in which a depth capture unit has been unsuccessful in generating depth information due to the presence of overlapping projected patterns and/or other anomalies.